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# Compton
__Compton__ is a compositor for X, and a fork of __xcompmgr-dana__.
I was frustrated by the low amount of standalone lightweight compositors.
Compton was forked from Dana Jansens' fork of xcompmgr and refactored. I fixed
whatever bug I found, and added features I wanted. Things seem stable, but don't
quote me on it. I will most likely be actively working on this until I get the
features I want. This is also a learning experience for me. That is, I'm
partially doing this out of a desire to learn Xlib.
## Changes from xcompmgr:
* OpenGL backend (`--backend glx`), in addition to the old X Render backend.
* Inactive window transparency (`-i`) / dimming (`--inactive-dim`).
* Titlebar/frame transparency (`-e`).
* Menu transparency (`-m`, thanks to Dana).
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* shadows are now enabled for argb windows, e.g. terminals with transparency
* removed serverside shadows (and simple compositing) to clean the code,
the only option that remains is clientside shadows
Feature #80: D-Bus support - Add D-Bus support. Currently 7 methods are available: "reset" (same as SIGUSR1), "list_win" (list the windows compton manages), "win_get" (get a property of the window), "win_set" (set a property of the window), "find_win" (find window based on client window / focus), "opts_get" (get the value of a compton option), and "opts_set" (set the value of a compton option), together with 4 signals: "win_added", "win_destroyed", "win_mapped", "win_unmapped". - D-Bus support depends on libdbus. - As there are many items and my time is tight, no much tests are done. Bugs to be expected. - Create a new header file `common.h` that contains shared content. - Fix some bugs in timeout handling. - Update file headers in all source files. - Re-enable --unredir-if-possible on multi-screen set-ups, as the user could turn if off manually anyway. - Check if the window is mapped in `repair_win()`. - Add ps->track_atom_lst and its handlers, to prepare for the new condition format. - Known issue 1: "win_get", "win_set", "opts_get", "opts_set" support a very limited number of targets only. New ones will be added gradually. - Known issue 2: Accidental drop of D-Bus connection is not handled. - Known issue 3: Introspection does not reveal all available methods, because some methods have unpredictable prototypes. Still hesitating about what to do... - Known issue 4: Error handling is not finished yet. Compton does not always reply with the correct error message (but it does print out the correct error message, usually).
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* configuration files (see the man page for more details)
* colored shadows (`--shadow-[red/green/blue]`)
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* a new fade system
Feature #80: D-Bus support - Add D-Bus support. Currently 7 methods are available: "reset" (same as SIGUSR1), "list_win" (list the windows compton manages), "win_get" (get a property of the window), "win_set" (set a property of the window), "find_win" (find window based on client window / focus), "opts_get" (get the value of a compton option), and "opts_set" (set the value of a compton option), together with 4 signals: "win_added", "win_destroyed", "win_mapped", "win_unmapped". - D-Bus support depends on libdbus. - As there are many items and my time is tight, no much tests are done. Bugs to be expected. - Create a new header file `common.h` that contains shared content. - Fix some bugs in timeout handling. - Update file headers in all source files. - Re-enable --unredir-if-possible on multi-screen set-ups, as the user could turn if off manually anyway. - Check if the window is mapped in `repair_win()`. - Add ps->track_atom_lst and its handlers, to prepare for the new condition format. - Known issue 1: "win_get", "win_set", "opts_get", "opts_set" support a very limited number of targets only. New ones will be added gradually. - Known issue 2: Accidental drop of D-Bus connection is not handled. - Known issue 3: Introspection does not reveal all available methods, because some methods have unpredictable prototypes. Still hesitating about what to do... - Known issue 4: Error handling is not finished yet. Compton does not always reply with the correct error message (but it does print out the correct error message, usually).
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* VSync support (not always working)
* Blur of background of transparent windows, window color inversion (bad in performance)
* Some more options...
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## Fixes from the original xcompmgr:
* fixed a segfault when opening certain window types
* fixed a memory leak caused by not freeing up shadows (from the freedesktop
repo)
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* fixed the conflict with chromium and similar windows
* [many more](https://github.com/chjj/compton/issues)
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## Building
### Dependencies:
__B__ for build-time
__R__ for runtime
* libx11 (B,R)
* libxcomposite (B,R)
* libxdamage (B,R)
* libxfixes (B,R)
* libXext (B,R)
* libxrender (B,R)
* libXrandr (B,R)
* libXinerama (B,R) (Can be disabled with `NO_XINERAMA` at compile time)
* pkg-config (B)
* make (B)
* xproto / x11proto (B)
* sh (R)
* xprop,xwininfo / x11-utils (R)
Feature #80: D-Bus support - Add D-Bus support. Currently 7 methods are available: "reset" (same as SIGUSR1), "list_win" (list the windows compton manages), "win_get" (get a property of the window), "win_set" (set a property of the window), "find_win" (find window based on client window / focus), "opts_get" (get the value of a compton option), and "opts_set" (set the value of a compton option), together with 4 signals: "win_added", "win_destroyed", "win_mapped", "win_unmapped". - D-Bus support depends on libdbus. - As there are many items and my time is tight, no much tests are done. Bugs to be expected. - Create a new header file `common.h` that contains shared content. - Fix some bugs in timeout handling. - Update file headers in all source files. - Re-enable --unredir-if-possible on multi-screen set-ups, as the user could turn if off manually anyway. - Check if the window is mapped in `repair_win()`. - Add ps->track_atom_lst and its handlers, to prepare for the new condition format. - Known issue 1: "win_get", "win_set", "opts_get", "opts_set" support a very limited number of targets only. New ones will be added gradually. - Known issue 2: Accidental drop of D-Bus connection is not handled. - Known issue 3: Introspection does not reveal all available methods, because some methods have unpredictable prototypes. Still hesitating about what to do... - Known issue 4: Error handling is not finished yet. Compton does not always reply with the correct error message (but it does print out the correct error message, usually).
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* libpcre (B,R) (Can be disabled with `NO_REGEX_PCRE` at compile time)
* libconfig (B,R) (Can be disabled with `NO_LIBCONFIG` at compile time)
* libdrm (B) (Can be disabled with `NO_VSYNC_DRM` at compile time)
* libGL (B,R) (Can be disabled with `NO_VSYNC_OPENGL` at compile time)
* libdbus (B,R) (Can be disabled with `NO_DBUS` at compile time)
* asciidoc (B) (and docbook-xml-dtd-4.5, libxml-utils, libxslt, xsltproc, xmlto, etc. if your distro doesn't pull them in)
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### How to build
To build, make sure you have the dependencies above:
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```bash
# Make the main program
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$ make
Feature #80: D-Bus support - Add D-Bus support. Currently 7 methods are available: "reset" (same as SIGUSR1), "list_win" (list the windows compton manages), "win_get" (get a property of the window), "win_set" (set a property of the window), "find_win" (find window based on client window / focus), "opts_get" (get the value of a compton option), and "opts_set" (set the value of a compton option), together with 4 signals: "win_added", "win_destroyed", "win_mapped", "win_unmapped". - D-Bus support depends on libdbus. - As there are many items and my time is tight, no much tests are done. Bugs to be expected. - Create a new header file `common.h` that contains shared content. - Fix some bugs in timeout handling. - Update file headers in all source files. - Re-enable --unredir-if-possible on multi-screen set-ups, as the user could turn if off manually anyway. - Check if the window is mapped in `repair_win()`. - Add ps->track_atom_lst and its handlers, to prepare for the new condition format. - Known issue 1: "win_get", "win_set", "opts_get", "opts_set" support a very limited number of targets only. New ones will be added gradually. - Known issue 2: Accidental drop of D-Bus connection is not handled. - Known issue 3: Introspection does not reveal all available methods, because some methods have unpredictable prototypes. Still hesitating about what to do... - Known issue 4: Error handling is not finished yet. Compton does not always reply with the correct error message (but it does print out the correct error message, usually).
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# Make the man pages
$ make docs
# Install
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$ make install
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```
(Compton does include a `_CMakeLists.txt` in the tree, but we haven't decided whether we should switch to CMake yet. The `Makefile` is fully usable right now.)
## Known issues
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* Our [FAQ](https://github.com/chjj/compton/wiki/faq) covers some known issues.
* VSync does not work too well. You may check the [VSync Guide](https://github.com/chjj/compton/wiki/vsync-guide) for how to get (possibly) better effects.
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* If `--unredir-if-possible` is enabled, when compton redirects/unredirects windows, the screen may flicker. Using `--paint-on-overlay` minimizes the problem from my observation, yet I do not know if there's a cure.
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* compton may not track focus correctly in all situations. The focus tracking code is experimental. `--use-ewmh-active-win` might be helpful.
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* The performance of blur under X Render backend might be pretty bad. OpenGL backend could be faster.
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* With `--blur-background` you may sometimes see weird lines around damaged area. `--resize-damage YOUR_BLUR_RADIUS` might be helpful in the case.
## Usage
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Please refer to the Asciidoc man pages (`man/compton.1.asciidoc` & `man/compton-trans.1.asciidoc`) for more details and examples.
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Note a sample configuration file `compton.sample.conf` is included in the repository.
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## Support
* Bug reports and feature requests should go to the "Issues" section above.
* Our (semi?) official IRC channel is #compton on FreeNode.
* Some information is available on the wiki, including [FAQ](https://github.com/chjj/compton/wiki/faq), [VSync Guide](https://github.com/chjj/compton/wiki/vsync-guide), and [Performance Guide](https://github.com/chjj/compton/wiki/perf-guide).
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## License
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Although compton has kind of taken on a life of its own, it was originally
an xcompmgr fork. xcompmgr has gotten around. As far as I can tell, the lineage
for this particular tree is something like:
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* Keith Packard (original author)
* Matthew Hawn
* ...
* Dana Jansens
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* chjj and richardgv
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Not counting the tens of people who forked it in between.
Compton is distributed under MIT license, as far as I (richardgv) know. See LICENSE for more info.